This Saturday 18th of August , the Vuelta a Espana is launched with a team time trial over 16.5 kilometers in Pamplona where Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank are supporting one of the overall favorites, Alberto Contador who just recently finished fourth overall in his comeback race in the Belgian/Dutch race, Eneco Tour.
The course of this year’s edition is concentrated in the Northern part of Spain and is characterized by an extremely mountainous profile in shape of eight mountain stages of which six have an uphill finish. Only one individual time trial over 39 kilometers is waiting for the field halfway on stage 11. Be well-prepared for a sensational festive penultimate stage where the final battle will be set among the GC riders when they enter the dreaded Bola del Mundo
Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank’s sports director, Bradley McGee says:
”First of all, I’m looking forward to seeing Alberto back in full force. He’s obviously extremely motivated and is going for no less than the overall win. To back him up we have a strong line-up specifically picked out to protect him during the race and I think they’re all looking ready and in good shape for the job. We have Nicki (Sørensen), Matteo (Tosatto) and Benji (Noval) who are all experts in the flat terrain while Bruno (Pires), Majka (Rafael), Paulinho (Sergio), Jesus (Hernandez) and Dani (Navarro) will be a powerful force on the climbs,” says sports director, Bradley McGee and continues:
“The course suits Alberto well along with a number of other riders. There are multiple uphill finishes and to mention one of the key stages, I’d say the penultimate stage to Bola del Mundo which is a significantly demanding climb especially this late in the race. There’s one individual time trial over 39 kilometers but as it contains both a climb and a descent, it’s well-designed for Alberto. But there are other riders who can benefit from the course. Christopher Froome (Sky) is naturally an obviously powerful opponent as he is excellent on the climbs and on the time trial. But also Rodriguez (Joaquin) is a threat. He’s got a very strong team and he’ll never stop fighting while Cobo (Movistar) is probably eager to defend his title. However, we’re doing our own race and we’re confident that we’ll do an aggressive race and achieve a good result because of that,” concludes the Australian sports director, Bradley McGee.
